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Free courses

Free AI courses UK for engineers, with an optional certificate

Are there free AI courses in the UK? Yes. The government's AI Skills Boost offers short free courses to every UK adult, and these 26 EDWartens courses go further for engineers: Python, machine learning, vision, generative AI and AI for PLC and plant work. They are free to learn. The certificate is optional (£19 including VAT) and not accredited.

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26 free AI and machine learning courses

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AI and machine learning in the UK

The government scheme, and when to go deeper

Checked 24 October 2026

The UK government's AI Skills Boost, announced on 28 January 2026, offers free training to every UK adult. Its courses can take under 20 minutes and lead to a virtual AI foundations badge (gov.uk announcement). That is a good first step for everyday AI use at work.

These courses are longer, from about 9 to 27 hours each, and written for people who work with machines. Most include a plant project with a dataset that is marked when you submit it.

Where to start

No paid tools needed

Projects run in a free Google Colab notebook, which gives you a GPU when a course needs one, and the language-model exercises use free models through OpenRouter or a local Ollama install. No course asks for a paid key or a card. Some courses prepare you for vendor exams (AWS, Microsoft, Google); the exams are booked and paid for with the vendor, and our certificate is a certificate of completion.

The industrial track

Most free AI training is written for office work. These courses are aimed at plant, panel and PLC people. AI for PLC Programming covers Structured Text with AI assistants and the Siemens Eigen Engineering Agent for TIA Portal, and how to review and test AI-written code before it reaches a machine. Predictive Maintenance works on run-to-failure data, Machine Vision Quality Inspection trains a defect detector, and Industrial Data with Python logs a simulated PLC over OPC UA. They teach the tools and their limits. They do not promise a job.

Practise and show your work

The Lab's machine learning workbench lets you train a model on plant data in the browser. The AI and data job simulations give you simulated workplace tasks to point to (practice, not employment).

Questions

AI and machine learning: common questions

Are there free AI courses in the UK?
Yes. The government's AI Skills Boost is free for UK adults, and EDWartens UK offers 26 free AI courses for engineers and technical staff. Both cost nothing to learn.
Which AI course should I start with?
Python for AI and Engineering Data if you have never coded, then Machine Learning with Python. If you already write Python, start with Generative AI and LLM Foundations or go straight to AI for Industrial Automation.
Is there an AI course for PLC programmers?
Yes. AI for PLC Programming teaches Structured Text with AI assistants and how to review and test AI-written code before it reaches a machine.
Do I need a GPU or a paid ChatGPT account?
No. Projects run in free Google Colab notebooks and on free or local models. Nothing asks for a paid key or a card.
Is the certificate an AI vendor credential?
No. It is an EDWartens certificate of completion, optional at £19 including VAT, not accredited and not issued by any AI vendor.
How is this different from the government course?
The government courses are short and general. These are longer, aimed at engineers, and each includes practice with real plant-style data. They are not a government qualification.

Next steps

Practise, then apply

Job simulations (practice, not employment)

Free simulators in the EDWartens Lab

Guides

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